Simple, Traditional Cacio e Pepe Pasta
When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When not in Rome…still do as the Romans do, because the Romans know how to DO IT. While not as well-known in the U.S., cacio e pepe pasta is one of the most iconic traditional Roman dishes, beautiful in its simplicity.
When I dig into a bowl of this, I’m immediately transported back to a night in Rome sitting in a cozy little trattoria with a glass of local red, with the moon bright and the noise of people chatting and Vespas zooming by outside.
It takes just a few simple ingredients, a couple pretty simple techniques, and about 15 minutes to make cacio e pepe, but the result is pure magic. I used Samin Nosrat’s recipe, because I like her simple description of the technique, and I’ve provided step-by-step photos below.
The star of this dish is the pecorino romano cheese, a hard, salty sheep’s milk cheese that’s native to Italy and has a very distinctive flavor. It shouldn’t be too hard to find, the fancy Murray’s cheese counter in my Midwestern Kroger has it.
A couple tips to make your cacio e pepe spectacular:
- I do STRONGLY recommend you get your hands on a real pecorino romano cheese…it is THE flavor in this dish, and any substitute just won’t be the same. It will be delicious, I’m sure, but not cacio e pepe. The cheese counter at my big Kroger has it (Murray’s).
- Additionally, you could consider more like a mixture of 70% pecorino and 30% parmesan (note, separate cheeses, but using some of both)
- The finer you grate your cheese, the better. I used two different tools…the first time I used my microplane zester/grater, which gives amazing fluffy cheese that’s perfect. But it takes longer and is a bit more difficult, so when making a full batch I used my cheese hand mill grater on the tiny setting, which was still awesome.
- Get your cheese grated ahead of time, because things move very quickly once you start.
- Don’t forget to reserve the pasta water before draining! I recommend waiting until the pasta has been cooking at least 5 minutes, to get it starchy enough.
- The first time I did this, I didn’t use a big enough skillet and it was super hard to toss everything together and get the pasta coated, so use the biggest you have. Also, long pasta is much easier to toss and coat than short pasta. Long pasta is more traditional in this dish.
My photos here are actually a compilation of a few different times I’ve made it…mostly because I was a dummy and when I made it with the buccatini (long) noodles which are more traditional, I totally forgot I was halving the recipe. So I added way too much pasta water and the sauce you see in the photos isn’t thick enough. Still 10/10 for flavor though…
Now let’s just look at this dreamy, fluffy pile of cheese again, shall we???
Falling In Love With Middle Eastern Cuisine: The Food of Israel & Jordan
In some countries and some cultures, food and culture are inextricably linked. And in the case of today’s destination, go back millennia. I’m so excited to share some background on Israel & Jordan cuisine, and some of the amazing food we tried (and places we visited)!
I can’t even begin to show you all the amazing stuff we did during our seven days there. I’ve done a whole post here on our trip itinerary (that links to several other individual in-depth posts). Suffice to say, it was a complete bucket list trip—including actually ticking my #1 bucket list item off when we visited the Lost City of Petra.
But one thing I didn’t get to go into tons of detail about in my travel blog posts was Middle Eastern cuisine and all the delicious things we ate and drank in Israel and Jordan. And when I returned home, I immediately started incorporating aspects into my recipe experimentation.
The hallmarks of Israel & Jordan cuisine
There are tons of similarities in Israel’s cuisine and Jordan’s, and both have been shaped by thousands of years of history and cultural changes. But there are some differences as well.
Like most Middle Eastern cultures, both rely on staples such as hummus, some kind of flat bread, tahini (sesame seed paste, used in many different things like halva, hummus, and sauces), meat roasted on a spit and shaved off (shawarma), lots of fresh salads and mezze (dips), falafel and other chickpea-based foods, flatbreads, and hot tea that welcomes you everywhere. And you’ll find olive oil in and around everything. While there are small differences in how each culture prepares each of these dishes, they’re very recognizable siblings regardless.
Then each has specialties and unique offerings. In Jordan, their cuisine is especially adapted to cooking over campfires in the desert, due to the Bedouin roots. For instance, zarb is cooked in an oven submerged over a fire in the sand out in the deserts of Petra and Wadi Rum, and yields super tender meat and vegetables. You’ll see a lot more za’atar (made from sumac that grows wild in Jordan) and yogurt served alongside main dishes (similar to what I found in Turkey). And you’ll be offered hot tea with mint (sometimes sweetened) everywhere you go—Bedouin hospitality is legendary!
In Israel, shawarma, falafel, hummus, and pita are omnipresent, with tahini sauce coating everything. You’ll find more sweets like knafeh and baklava as well. Shaksuka (a spicy egg dish originating in North Africa) is also emblematic of Israeli cuisine. What’s interesting is how all of the Jewish people returning to Israel after World War II from places like Eastern Europe have impacted the overall cuisine—seen in the presence of dishes such as rugelach, babka, and sufganiot (jelly donuts for Hanukkah).
Sailing & Snacking In Sweden’s Gothenburg Archipelago
Wow, I hadn’t realized how long it’s been since I’ve talked about my two true loves together—food and travel!
Today I want to show you a little bit about my trip to Sweden, which was completely impromptu and ended up being completely epic. What started as snagging a cheap flight ($286 from Newark to Gothenburg) led us to stumbling on renting a sailboat on Airbnb and spending a long weekend on the beautiful waters of the Gothenburg Archipelago in the North Sea. This was my first time visiting a Scandinavian country, but I’ve since been to Norway a couple times so expect more on delicious Scandinavian pastries to come!
We landed in Gothenburg and our sailboat captain, Patrik, picked us up at the airport. While our ultimate goal was getting out on the water as soon as possible, Patrik wanted us to get a little glimpse of the city—plus we needed to stock up on provisions. We were starving, so first we sat at a lovely outdoor cafe and tried AMAZING fish cakes in a brown butter sauce, with mashed potatoes and peas. We had their salad bar as well, with a refreshing local beer to wash everything down with. I was really excited about the fish cakes, because they were made with salmon and white fish and no shellfish, which is crazy hard to find.
Tahini Brownies (gluten-free, but adaptable)
One of the things I love about traveling is when I run across a food or flavor that is totally new to me. And in this case, I was able to come home and start experimenting with it right away in my own cooking.
My dad and I took an awesome trip to Israel and Jordan last May, an epic week exploring tons of historical areas in the north and Negev Desert, Tel Aviv and Old Jaffa, Jerusalem, Masada, the Dead Sea, Wadi Rum, and Petra—and much more. One of the constants on every part of our journey was tahini, a paste made from ground sesame seeds. It is omnipresent in the Israeli and Jordanian diets, taking both sweet and savory forms.
It was one of the first things we ate upon landing (on that delicious falafel pita below) and one of the last things before taking off (that delicious sweet halva that looks like cheese wheels below). We ate halva in a Bedouin camp in Jordan and tahini on our Yemeni malawach in Jerusalem. So tahini kind of got its hooks in me, and I’ve been experimenting with different recipes since returning (like this Chickpea Sweet Potato Buddha Bowl with a tahini dressing). But this is my first dessert recipe using tahini, and it’s super delicious.
If you’re interested, you can read more about our travels in Israel and in Jordan!
Another Adventure!
So I figured it was about time I shared something that’s pretty exciting (to me at least).
It isn’t exactly a secret, but it isn’t exactly widely-known either. A few months ago I started a travel blog!
It really came about because I realized that I have so much travel research, so many trial-and-error tips, beautiful pictures, and perfect itineraries to share, but didn’t have a way to do it. Travel and food are two of my main passions in life—ones that thankfully often overlap 🙂
I’ve been trying to travel more and more over the last year. Successfully, I might add…in 2016 I was blessed to visit Mexico, Argentina, Turkey, Canada, Sweden, France, Italy, and Spain, in addition to a few great trips in the U.S. My first half of 2017 is even more jam-packed (Norway, the California coast, Switzerland, Portugal, Jordan, Israel, and Turkey again!).
SO. If you like seeing new places, hearing about different cultures, beautiful pictures, amazeballs-looking food, wacky travel mishap stories, and super practical tips on how to see the world on your own, I’d love for you to join me over at One Girl, Whole World as well. Or, share with a friend or family member who loves to travel.
Have no fear—I’ll still be posting tons of great recipes here. This is just a new adventure that I’m super excited about, and wanted to share with you guys as well.
See you on the flip side!
Eating My Way Through Istanbul: Exploration
How can I *not* start with this pic. I mean, LOOK. AT. IT.
If you caught my post a couple weeks ago, you’ll know how much I LOOOOOVED the food in Turkey, and the two different food tours we went on to get a feel for the culture and cuisine. But the tours were just the beginning…we spent all three days eating everything in sight (and maybe seeing some sights in-between).
We couldn’t have asked for a more gorgeous day to explore. The Blue Mosque looked particularly majestic against the blue sky.
You might like: What to Do With 24 Hours in Istanbul
We were up early and tramped over the Galata Bridge, in search of breakfast.
And boy, did we find it. So, this is definitely one of the stranger things we ate. We sat down to a lovely breakfast, I ordered a cappuccino and honey and sweet cream with bread, and then something on the menu caught my eye. That white dish in the back is tavukgogsu—otherwise known as chicken breast pudding.
I KNOW. READ THE POST
Eating My Way Through Istanbul: Food Tours
Oh, internet peeps, this trip was just amazing. No other word for it.
The view that welcomed us at our Airbnb rooftop apartment
When my co-worker randomly texted me in February saying she’d found a ticket to Istanbul for around $700, did I want to go, I immediately jumped at the chance to visit a city that’s always been on my bucket list. As a total history nerd, the Roman Empire and Constantinople has always fascinated me, and so off we went for a whirlwind Memorial Day weekend.
And Istanbul? You did not disappoint!
But while I’ve always looked forward to seeing Istanbul’s architecture and culture and history, I hadn’t given its food much thought. In my pre-trip research I read about a lot of things that sounded great, and we decided what better way to get our bearings in the city than with a food tour (or two)—and that was an excellent decision, if I do say so myself.
I totally fell in love with Turkey’s food…join me, if you will, on this gastro extravaganza (gastro-vaganza??).
Here’s more on Istanbul’s food and awesomeness
We arrived at our apartment in late afternoon, refreshed ourselves, and hit the streets right away. After accidentally getting on the tram going the wrong direction for a stop, we quickly got headed the right way and met up with our tour guide in Sultanahmet.
This was our guide, Burek. He brought us to a local family’s house, where the mom made a traditional meal including corba (a delicious lentil soup), chicken with vegetables and sauce and pilav and yogurt, and bread and watermelon. We also had the traditional black tea. We sat on the floor like they do regularly, in the same room they sleep in as well. Throughout the meal we conversed with the family, with Burek translating, and learned about their life in the eastern part of the country prior to coming to Istanbul about a decade ago (they are Kurdish) and what their life is like now. It was such a cool experience.
Burek took us to a local pub next. Pubs don’t serve alcohol, but instead the traditional shisha (also called hookah, nargile, etc.) and tea. The pub was really beautiful, with ornate light fixtures and beautiful inlaid tables. Frequented by locals, the building is over 300 years old, was once a religious school and dervish lodge, then bazaar. The waiter brought us glasses of “apple tea” (which is more like the powdered apple cider that comes in packets, and only drunk by tourists and children) and apple (elma) shisha. While the shisha is definitely not for me, it was a really interesting and authentic experience.READ THE POST
Exploring Argentina’s Food and Wine
It’s no secret that travel is my crack. Few experiences can compete with setting foot in a new country, seeing how the people live, soaking up the culture, and—of course—eating and drinking everything in sight. So imagine my excitement when my friend Sarai and I decided on Argentina for our girls’ trip this year.
This was basically my face the whole time.
So, without further ado, here are some highlights (a little heavily food/wine focused, because…well, duh) from Argentina. I hope it gets you as excited to try and visit this amazing country as it did for me.
Our first taste of Argentina actually was a medialuna and kind of sad coffee hastily bought at the airport before jumping on a bus that took two hours to take us across the city to the domestic airport. It actually was pretty darn good, but then once we got to the airport we were STARVING. On the great advice of someone from the TripAdvisor forum, we eschewed the airport food and walked across the street to one of the food carts.
One hamburgesa and a grapefruit soda later, we were content to bask in the sunlight and watch old men fish while waiting to check in for our flight. Our first stop was in Puerto Iguazu, where we spent the next day exploring the absolutely amazing Iguazu Falls (from the Argentinian side).
THIS IS REAL LIFE.READ THE POST
Food Travel Postcard: North Island, New Zealand
Wrapping up our trip with a few days in the Rotorua area of the North Island!
We’d planned to head down to Hamilton for one night so we could do a dawn hot air balloon ride, but the weather didn’t cooperate so we headed straight to our rental house on Lake Tarawera, about 20 minutes from Rotorua. It was dark when we arrived, but early the next morning Sarai and I took our coffee down the hill to our little jetty and watched the sunrise.
Our deck had a great view! We were totally off the grid out there—no cell service or wifi—so we lit the fireplace, sat on the deck, drank wine and talked. It was so relaxing!
The Rotorua area is famous for being a “thermal wonderland”. One day we visited Wai-o-Tapu, probably the most well-known of the thermal areas. The gorgeous Champagne Pool, with its “artist’s palette” came to life for us, and this highlighter-yellow lake was unbelievable! But everything smelled like rotten egg, which was really gross—I haven’t been up for eating eggs since then…
We found this awesome cafe called Capers in Rotorua. They had all sorts of great stuff, so we stopped there twice for brunch. The second time I had this amazing toasted brioche with ricotta and local honey.READ THE POST
Food Travel Postcard: Nelson/Tasman Region, New Zealand
We spent the last eight days in the Nelson/Tasman region of the South Island. We’d rented a lovely little house in Richmond and based ourselves there for various food and beverage explorations, as well as attending the Feast of Tabernacles. Nelson is one of the bigger cities in the area, about 46,000 people. It’s about an area from the Abel Tasman National Park, which has gorgeous coastal tracks and kayaking and seals and beaches. It and the Marlborough region are also acclaimed for their local wines and beers, so it was the perfect place for our foursome to stay!
The scenery in this part of the South Island was so different from where we were previously. Golden beaches, turquoise waters, green hills—it was like Hawaii up in here.
Split Apple Rock in Abel Tasman. Not an actual apple.
We hiked Pinchgut Trail in Nelson Lakes National Park, up Mt. Robert…it was crazy steep and we just about died. We rewarded our delirious, exhausted selves with a giant dinner and beer at The Vic.
We took a boat ride along the Abel Tasman coast and then had an awesome dinner of lamb and good wine at Ford’s in Nelson.
This area is particularly known for its wines, so I put on my comfy wine tasting skirt and got down to business…READ THE POST
Food Travel Postcard: Lake Tekapo/Mt. Cook/Aoraki, New Zealand
Greetings from the future!!!
No, really, it’s tomorrow here. I’m in gorgeous, sunny New Zealand, soaking up the unbelievable scenery, talking to awesome Kiwis (the people, not the bird), and hanging out with three cool friends. We’re here for the Feast of Tabernacles, but since we were coming so far (and spending so much money!) we wanted to cram as much awesome into our trip as possible. As always when I travel, I am also super excited about trying all kinds of local food and drink!
We spent our first few days in the Mackenzie region, after flying into Christchurch and then driving a few hours down to Lake Tekapo. When we arrived at our first rental house, we were utterly charmed, and visions of coffee and wine in front of the fire danced in our heads.
We immediately set out to explore, taking in the gorgeous turquoise waters of Lake Tekapo before heading into the village in search of sustenance.
We had decent pizzas and good local beer. Great, interesting beer is one of the things New Zealand seems to offer in abundance. This is a local oyster stout, and when I asked the waiter if it had oysters in it he said no, but then the internet told me otherwise. Oops… :SREAD THE POST
Food Travel Postcard: Croatia & Slovenia
It’s been a whirlwind two weeks! My parents and I spent a week and a half exploring the nooks and crannies of Croatia, Slovenia, and northern Italy. We started our trip in the unreal beauty of the Plitvice Lakes National Park, a UNESCO world heritage site. We walked through the rushing waterfalls and gorgeous teal and green waters.
For more foodie + travel adventures, try:
Devouring the Food & Wine of Argentina
Travel Postcard: Las Vegas!
So, in general, Vegas isn’t really my thing. I’m not a gambler, I’m too cheap to drop a couple hundred bucks on a show, I’m not a raging partier, and I’m not big on crowds.
I do, however, LOVE sun and food…and Vegas has both in spades.
Bree and I made sure to have a couple great meals while we were in town, so I’ve included below in case you have a trip coming up and would like recommendations. The first was at Terra Verde, an Italian place in our resort (Green Valley Ranch).
We started with this delicious caprese salad. The burrata, in particular, was awesome!READ THE POST
Food Travel Postcard: Motovun, Croatia
Dobar dan from Croatia!
Okay, truth is I’m actually already home again, but I already posted on one of my two absolute favorite meals while I was on my two-and-a-half-week European adventure, so I thought it only fair to post on the other one.
And—shocker—it features the legendary talents of the heavenly black truffle!
For much more on my Motovun and northern Croatian adventures:
Motovun: Croatia’s Quintessential Hill Town
Exploring the Hill Towns of Northern Croatia
We spent a day driving around inner Istria, in northern Croatia. It’s a peninsula that is much like Tuscany, full of vineyards, agriculture, adorable old hilltop towns, and truffles. Our last stop of the day before heading back to Rovinj was Motovun, a suitably picturesque town complete with an old wall and tower. I couldn’t wait to sample the food in Motovun again, and knew exactly where to go first.
The restaurant was actually in the inner gate wall, tucked underneath. We were ravenous at this point, and I knew there was no question that I was having something with truffles. When a black truffle risotto showed up on the menu, I was sold. We also ordered their house-made Teran wine, which was unique and delicious.
Food Travel Postcard: Cinque Terre, Italy
Welcome to one of my favorite places in the world!
The first time I visited le Cinque Terre while back in college, it was still a fairly unknown little corner of Italy, tucked right under the muffin top. Sadly Cinque Terre has become one of the most popular corners of Italy since then, nearly overrun by tourists during the summer. But you CAN still enjoy it and avoid the crowds (here are my tips for an amazing trip), and the food and wine here are worth the trip.
This region, Liguria, is known as the birthplace of pesto, one of my favorite foods OF ALL TIME. So every time I visit, finding an amazing restaurant to have pasta con pesto is at the top of my list. Much of the time it’s served with this special pasta made specially for the pesto, called trofie. I still use my host mom’s pesto recipe to this day (from when I studied abroad), and it’s no-fail.
But pesto is just one of the many delicious things you need to eat in the Cinque Terre. When I visit Cinque Terre, I always stay in the southernmost town, Riomaggiore. There are yummy snacks every way you turn, from fried anchovies to creamy gelato and tiramisu to fresh fish.
Speaking of that sunset, you absolutely have to climb out onto the rocks in the Riomaggiore harbor and watch the sunset! It’s literally one of my favorite places and moments on earth, especially if you think ahead and bring a couple bottles of local crisp white wine.
But even though I’ve been waxing on about Riomaggiore’s charms (and go even further in this post), it’s only one of the five adorable villages clinging to the coast, that make up the Cinque Terre. Even though not all the trails are open anymore (SO SAD), you can do a combination of hiking and quick train rides between the towns to explore each in turn.
Want other ideas for what to eat in Cinque Terre? Have a glass of wine in Corniglia on one of the stunning belvedere views. Indulge in more cold gelato after a dusty and hot hike into Monterosso. Snag some pizza in Vernazza on the waterfront. You can’t go wrong.
It’s not hard to see why I totally fell for this place. Even though you have to get crafty to avoid the crazy tourist crowds, it IS possible, and it IS worth it. Your taste buds (and camera) will thank you!
Cinque Terre is great because it’s so central as well. You can easily get to Milan, Pisa, Genoa, Siena, San Gimignano (and all of Tuscany), and Florence within a couple hours, and basically the rest of Italy is at your feet. Have you been to Cinque Terre? If so, I’d love to know what you ate and drank, and what your favorite parts were!
Want to try Ligurian pesto yourself? Test out Giovanna’s pasta con pesto recipe!
Other travel and food adventures you’ll love:
- Sailing & Snacking in Sweden’s Gothenburg Archipelago
- Devouring Turkey’s Cuisine on Istanbul’s Asian Side
- Falling in Love with Middle Eastern Cuisine: A Week in Israel & Jordan
- Exploring Argentina’s Food & Wine
Pin for later!
Airport Food: One Flew South
As I headed out on my Italian & Croatian adventure, I killed a little time in the Atlanta airport by trying one of the most-talked-about airport restaurants in the country—One Flew South.
CNN recently named them one of the top ten airport restaurants (I think in America only, though not positive). Do they live up to the hype? We’ll see.
Updated at the bottom June 2020
I started with a cauliflower and parsnip soup, which was beautiful and hearty. It was maybe a little bland but overall pretty good.
Then I debated between the pulled duck sandwich and the awesome-sounding burger. At the waitress’s urging I went with the duck sandwich. It was pulled duck with duck confit, scallions, figs, some kind of peanut relish, and a sweet-spicy mustard. Overall it was delicious. The mustard was maybe a little overwhelming for me because I’m a total wuss, but the dish overall was great.
So I can safely say that One Flew South lives up to its hype. In addition to the creative and interesting menu, the service was great, the food came out very quickly without feeling rushed, and the prices were insanely reasonable. In fact, they were exactly what I would have expected to pay for the same meal in Atlanta regularly, not in the airport. My soup was $7, sandwich was $14, and wine (a pretty great Kung Fu Girl Riesling) was $8.
I had the chance to re-visit One Flew South for the first time in almost a decade in February 2020, while on a CRAZY thunderstorm delay while headed to Jamaica. I feel like I got a starter, but can’t remember…what I do remember was re-visiting that pulled duck sandwich. It was just as good as the first time! I also had banana pudding and a couple drinks. Their cocktail menu is interesting, and I particularly enjoyed the Nearest to Happiness (with Uncle Nearest whiskey).
If you end up in the E terminal at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta airport, or have a long layover in another terminal, definitely go check them out!